معرفی
Derek Heng serves as Professor of History and Interim Chair of the Department of History at Northern Arizona University, specializing in pre-colonial and early modern Southeast Asian history with emphasis on maritime trade networks, Chinese historical interactions, and archaeological evidence from the 14th-18th centuries.
Research Focus:
His work centers on Southeast Asian commercial history, Chinese textual records of Melaka, and shipwreck archaeology as historical sources. He examines how maritime trade routes connected China with Southeast Asia, analyzing macro patterns in Ming and Qing dynasty records while reconstructing regional dynamics through material culture and archival evidence. His interdisciplinary approach bridges historical analysis with archaeological findings to understand pre-colonial South China Sea heritage.
Publication Trends:
Recent output (2022-2025) reveals concentrated scholarship on Southeast Asian trade within global contexts, particularly through contributions to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Asian Commercial History. Key themes include the integration of archaeological data with textual analysis, the evolution of Melaka as a commercial hub, and the reinterpretation of South China Sea history through pre-colonial lenses. This body of work demonstrates increasing methodological sophistication in synthesizing maritime archaeology with economic history.
